Friday Favorites: Food, beauty and more

ByAshley Hours
Comments 31 Comments

Happy Friday, friends! It’s just about time for another fresh set of favorites, but before that, let’s chat about the weekend. Tonight, Dave and I are going over to a friends’ house for our first chance to join in on a rotating dinner party, in which a different couple hosts the party each month. This is something our group of friends has been doing long before we moved to the ‘burbs, and we’re finally able to be a part of it — such a good way to spend a weekend evening! And tomorrow is a pretty cool day for me. Over the past few weeks, I’ve been planning an event for a few local fitness, fashion and lifestyle bloggers to come together for a meet-up and workout, and the event is taking place in the afternoon. Make sure you check out Instagram to follow along, and I’ll be sure to fill you in more next week. Now for the good stuff …

This week’s finds for “Friday Favorites” 

Fridays are the perfect chance to step back from hearty content and keep it light with a random selection of things making my happy lately …

My favorite event of the week

It’s not often that I get to take a night off from working at the gym, head into the City, hang out with lovely people and cook a gourmet meal with the founder of an innovative company. So when I do, I relish the opportunity. Earlier this week, I had the awesome chance to attend the very first public-facing event hosted by Green Chef, the first and only USDA-certified organic meal-kit-delivery service, which is launching nationally in January 2016. Green Chef wanted to share its story with some of us locals, who love to talk about food …

Green Chef event in San Francisco via A Lady Goes West blogWe met in the cozy Cookhouse event space in the North Beach neighborhood, had appetizers, learned about the fast-growing company and then got to put Green Chef meal kits to the test, before finally sitting down to enjoy our creations.

After some socializing, we hit the kitchen. I worked with another blogger, Ana, to create a Paleo Mustard Balsamic Chicken dish, which took less than 35 minutes to create, and it was delicious. I’ll be sharing more about Green Chef very soon, but for now, enjoy this little preview. (By the way, Green Chef is currently available in San Francisco, for all of my Bay Area friends looking to create healthy and organic meals at home with all of the ingredients and instructions provided. If you use this link, you can get your first four meals for free.) Thanks to the sweet and fun folks at Green Chef for hosting me. Good times!

My favorite new cosmetics of the week

In case you haven’t noticed, this is a far cry from a beauty blog. But yes, I do wear make-up, and yes, I do like to use it. I tend to stick to the same products and definitely don’t spend a ton of money on them. I’ve come across a few good things lately worth sharing, and I also restocked one of my regular favorites …

Eye and lip make-up finds via A Lady Goes WestJust the basics. This Maybelline mascara, this Covergirl liner and these Doll 10 lip crayons are the latest good finds in my make-up bag, keeping it nice and simple.

Water-proof mascara is a must for my day-to-day look, seeing as I generally sweat each day, and I need it to stay in place. And black liner that looks like liquid but goes on like pencil? Yes, please. That’s an essential for the weekend. Also these new colorful lip crayons have been the perfect way to spice up a look, and they are so easy to apply, you don’t even need any extra gloss for shimmer or liner because it’s included. 

My favorite new snack of the week

Have you ever had granola/protein/energy bars so fresh that they required refrigeration? Me neither, but I recently got the chance to try out these Perfect Bars that do just that. The Perfect Bar brand was originally hosting a blogger event last week in San Francisco, but sadly it had to be cancelled. In light of that, they were so kind to send me some samples of what we were going to try at the event …

Perfect Bar via A Lady Goes WestPerfect Bars were started by a health-conscious gym owner in San Diego in the sixties, and the company is still family owned today. They stand behind their promise that their products are “Grounded in Perfection.”

Of course, the almond butter and peanut butter are my favorite, but they’re all very good, including the “lite” versions, which have a few less calories. Overall, these bars are very dense, fresh and super tasty. You can tell you’re eating something that is good for you, and a little bit more substantial than other bars. They are gluten-free. They contain superfoods. They are non-GMO. They are kosher. And they are high in protein. Good stuff. You can find Perfect Bars at many grocery stores, but remember to look in the refrigerated section. 

My favorite links of the week

Did you miss some of the good stuff on A Lady Goes West this week? Here’s what happened …

This video of new dumbbell exercises is totally mesmerizing and will be inspiring some workouts for me in the future. I’ve watched it no less than five times this week.

And check out this piece I recently wrote for the MyFitnessPal blog, Hello Healthy, about an amazing woman who transformed her life and beat cancer. I truly enjoy learning the story of others and bringing them to life through words, and this one will give you perspective. That’s it for today. Have a great weekend my, friends!

Take a break and enjoy this round-up of good stuff ... #Favorites #Food #Beauty #BayArea Share on X

Read more Friday Favorites

If you’ve enjoyed browsing through this post, visit the the link-up hostesses, Heather and Katie, or check out all of my older “Friday Favorites” posts. 

*There are a couple of affiliate links in this post. Thanks for your support.

Questions of the day

What are you up to this weekend?

What’s something fun you’ve been loving lately?

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31 Comments

  1. Enjoy your dinner party! That is such a fun idea! We are flying out to Seattle this weekend to visit family and friends- Charlotte’s first Seattle trip! 😉

    Reply

    1. Yay, Marielle! Good luck on the plane! I’m sure she will do great. 🙂 (Side note – I’ve never been to Seattle and always wanted to go!)

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  3. My Toronto Blue Jays are in the MLB playoffs and play tonight so my husband and I will be tuning in from the comfort of our couch. Tomorrow my 5 year-old niece wants to have a girls day with me of walking trails in a nearby park and having lunch at McDonalds. Oh to be 5 again!!

    Have fun at your dinner party. My parents and 5 other couples have a dinner group that has been meeting on a monthly basis since 1979!!! No joke. They each host a different month and the host picks a country and all of the other couples make a dish that corresponds with that county and the host gets to sit back and enjoy the foods 🙂

    Reply

    1. Hi Catherine! Wow, your parents and their friends have stuck to it for a long time — I love to hear that. And how cool that the hosts don’t have to cook hahaha. In our rotation – the host makes the entree – the guests bring apps and drinks. And what a cute day you have tomorrow with your niece. I hope you both get Happy Meals! 🙂

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    2. Hopefully the game is not delayed or put off till tomorrow, it’s raining here in Kansas City home of the Royals … 🙂

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  4. I’m so bummed I’m missing your event tomorrow 🙁 I would much rather be there than at the wedding we are going too… HOpefully it’s a huge success and you host another soon! Or maybe we could even team up and do one someday. That would be so fun!

    I’ve heard of Green Chef but haven’t tried it. That Paleo Chicken sounds amazing though! I’ll have to look into it soon!

    Hope you have a great weekend! Sounds like it will be busy but fun!

    Reply

    1. Hi Torry! Thanks! It’s nice to have a little rotation of regular activity on the calendar going, so I’m excited for it. Hope you have a wonderful weekend, lady!!

      Reply

  6. Sounds like a busy but very fun weekend!! The dinner party idea especially 🙂 I really like that article on the My Fitness Pal blog, good job!

    I’m going to a charity holiday shopping event with my mom and spending the remainder of the weekend preparing for my big trip to Vietnam next week. So many travel snacks and other things to pick up!

    Reply

  7. Green Chef sounds like a great concept! I bet they would do really well in the suburbs. I would think those that live in the city probably eat out the majority of the time because of all the amazing restaurants.

    And thanks for sharing that dumbell video and the article you wrote! I’m definitely going to check both of them out.

    I hope you have fun tonight at the party! See you tomorrow, eek! 🙂

    Reply

  9. What a great week you had! I was lucky enough to be treated to a meal service when we first had our baby but I have to say it was pricier then expected (had been been giving a gift card) and the food though said was gourmet..was not so..oh well..it was nice not to have to cook so I’ll take that!

    This weekend one of my closest friends is coming into town to meet our little baby and then we are having a girls night with our book club..it will be so nice to get out SANS baby…though we all have kids now so I’m sure the conversation won’t stray too far from baby talk! Other then that we hope to have a low key weekend with a few errands here and there ..oh and we are getting a new couch! yessss…..our house looks like a college kids house with mismatching furniture so we are finally taking a step into adulthood by getting an ‘adult’ couch….not green filled with dog hair..lol…let’s hope we can keep the pup off this one!

    Have a great weekend!

    Reply

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